The Rationalists: Descartes, Spinoza and LeibnizDescartes, Spinoza and Leibniz stand out among their seventeenth century contemporaries as the great rationalist philosophers. Each sought to construct a philosophical system in which theological and philosophical foundations serve to explain the physical, mental and moral universe. Through a careful analysis of their work, Pauline Phemister explores the rationalists seminal contribution to the development of modern philosophy. Broad terminological